Sneak Peeks
by speechbubble
Summary: It was part of Alex's job to find out about things. It was in his nature, in his blood. He couldn't help it. He found out about things, whether he wanted or not. A glance into K-unit's team dynamics. SnakeOFC, EagleOFC, EagleSnake, AlexBen.


**A/N: **_Alright, this will probably turn out to be a long-ish A/N... but at least this OS is rather long-ish as well^^ (And it has certainly been a challenge to write.)_

_First of all, you have been warned of the slash, and please feel warned of the OCs as well. I tried my best creating them, and they are, in my opinion, essential to the plot of this one-shot. It just did not work without them. Please let me know what you think of them, though._

_Secondly, this whole thing has been inspired by Fridgework's comment on a tiny EagleSnake hint in "Delta Alfa Tango Echo" (from "Unofficial Files")._

_Thirdly, a lot of thanks go to littleshush for helping me with the issue of choosing the names for Fiona and K-unit!_

_Fourthly, lots of thanks go to Jess for proof-reading for major plot holes! (She has not read the AR books, though, so you might find some discrepancies anyway – and if you do, please tell me!)_

_Finally, I hope you enjoy this, despite the complete lack of action and focus. Feel free to tell me your opinion!_

_**Disclaimer: **__Alex Rider is not mine. Fiona, Sophia and Jake are._

**Sneak Peeks**

Alex was having a hard time remembering if he had ever seen Ben this concentrated on driving before. Both hands gripping the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the road and keeping the speedometer needle stuck to the exact speed limit, his demeanour was a disquieting contrast to the way he had jumped out of bed and thrown on some random clothes strewn about the room right after Wolf had hung up, effectively ending their lazy morning. Ben had been outright seething only minutes ago – irrationally yelling at Wolf for not calling him sooner and aggressively demanding details about Snake's condition.

Silently watching his partner from the corner of his eye, Alex tried to get himself to relax – Ben repetitively checking his blind spot before taking a turn actually made him more nervous and tense than Ben flying through bends with screeching tires, firing at some pursuer through the smashed driver's window. There had been no way the older spy would have let him drive to the hospital, though. In fact, he had practically had to jump into the passenger's seat while Ben had already been pulling out of the driveway.

Having a comrade injured was always an unsettling experience – it reminded you of that mean little piece of uncomfortable knowledge at the back of your head – that all men are mortal, and that a soldier's life expectancy was definitely lower than the average one. Snake was stable, yes, and he had probably been lucky, too, – Alex had not really caught the entire conversation between Ben and Wolf, and thus did not exactly know what had happened, but the situations their jobs lead them into were generally not ones to be underestimated – and still, there was this ominous heat rising in the back of his neck, and he could only imagine how Ben must have been feeling.

When they arrived at the hospital – St. Dominic's, of course -, things seemed to speed up for some seconds - like they had been lagging slightly behind time while on their way and now had to catch up on the minutes lost – Ben inquiring at the front desk at seemingly the same moment as he slammed the door of the car shut and locked it, then walking through white hallways so fast they were just so not running yet, until they finally came face to face with Wolf, and everything clicked back into place.

"Fox. Cub." Their former unit leader greeted them, his use of their code names not only an old habit, but also showing that his mind was still more out on the field than in the current situation. Ben and Alex nodded in acknowledgement, Alex feeling like it was not his turn to speak and Ben still somewhere between his barely suppressed version of angry and openly worried, and maybe not trusting his voice not to reflect that yet, even though Alex could almost feel him gathering the concentration for what they called 'mission mode' between themselves.

Wolf looked tired – he had been there when Snake had been injured from what Alex gathered, and he had not slept and perhaps not even eaten since then from what he guessed. Seeing how they had been deployed somewhere far enough away to need to be flown in and how Snake had been in surgery for some hours, that would have been a while.

"Neil's not here yet?" Ben inquired suddenly, scanning their surroundings, his tone oddly surprised. "You did call him, right?"

"Just after I called you," Wolf informed him, "He should arrive soon."

There was a short awkward silence, none of them particularly up to asking questions or – god forbid – making small-talk. Ben had already interrogated Wolf about what had happened – and Wolf had told him as much as he knew himself – and now it seemed none of them quite knew where to start.

"Fiona's over there," Wolf broke the quiet in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, the unusual tone seemingly scratchy in his throat, "I've been trying to make her get some rest, but she refuses to leave him here on his own."

Alex thought that Wolf was being hypocritical for a moment – he was not getting any rest himself - but then he quickly concluded that the soldier probably had not wanted to leave Snake's wife alone either. It was only now that he really looked at the petite woman sitting on the floor next to the door to Snake's room, her back against the wall and her knees pulled up. Her face was buried in a mane of curly strawberry blonde hair, but Alex could imagine her expression too well. It seemed that she was not aware of their arrival, too lost in dark thoughts.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Ben move to approach her, slowly and cautiously. He could tell from the rise and fall of his partner's shoulders that he was taking one, two, three deep calming breaths, collecting the certainty and firmness that he would need to convince Fiona to take a rest. Leaning down, Ben laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Fiona?"

She looked up startled, straightening up a little, uncurling from her position, and Alex flinched slightly as he discovered that she was pregnant – not too far yet, maybe in her fifth or sixth month, but her belly was undeniably rounded in that particular way.

"Ben," she whispered, and if she had spoken any louder her voice would surely have broken on the single syllable. "Luke said he called you."

She made to get up and Ben carefully helped her to her feet, keeping a steadying grip on her upper arms.

"And here I am," he replied softly. Alex recognised the tone immediately – it was the calming one, the one employed to deal with traumatised murder witnesses and hysterically crying children, the one that seemed to invade all of one's sense of hearing and struck chords deep within. It was the one that kept people sane, including, at times, Alex himself.

Fiona leaned into Ben's touch with glazed eyes and Alex found the tenseness of Wolf's frame fade slightly, relief written all over his features (for someone who knew where to look, at least) at the sight of the woman responding to someone. He did not strike Alex as the kind of person who was good at comforting others – he could really sympathise with that – and it was plain to see that he had been trying, albeit in vain.

"The doctor's with him right now," Fiona explained without being prompted to, her speech gradually growing louder before weakening again, tears constricting her throat. While she talked her voice became more and more high-pitched and hoarse as she pushed it forcefully."Just a check up. He's been out of surgery and awake for a while now. He's fine, actually, at least he says so, but they just pumped him full of painkillers and he looks so, so, I'm afraid to touch him because I'm scared I'll break even more bones even though I know it's not possible, I think, I guess, I'm just glad that Jake doesn't seem to mind at all, he was so worried about his dad, but now it seems just fine, since Quinn's awake and everything, Jake is sleeping inside, I didn't want to wake him up and the doctor said it's fine, he said it's fine but really it's _not_ fine, it's not_ fine_ at all, it's not-"

"It will be," Ben murmured, pulling her a little closer, not quite into an embrace, but close enough for her to be able to feel the warmth of his body in addition to that of his hands still resting on her arms. Shifting his grasp to her face, he gently forced her to meet his eyes. "Fiona, go get something to eat in the cafeteria with Luke, will you? And then try to catch a kip at least. Take a break, I can see that you need one. Both of you," he added, briefly turning to Wolf. "You're of no use to Quinn in this state. Just leave him and Jake to Alex and me in the meantime."

Fiona opened her mouth to protest, a brief moment of her Irish temper flashing in her eyes. Ben put a finger to her lips, effectively making her halt, and fixed her in an imploring gaze.

"I know that you're afraid of leaving him alone right now, but I promise we will look out for him while you get some rest," he said, his voice dyed in a fine nuance of pleading while he appealed to her reason. She tried avoid his eyes, chewing on her lower lip which was already red and raw from the abuse.

"Please, Fiona."

"Okay, Ben," she conceded wistfully with a sigh and sagging shoulders, no strength or fight left inside of her. Belatedly, she appeared to realise that Alex was standing next to them in the hallway as well. Moving away from Ben, she turned to him, vaguely seizing him up with unfocused blue eyes, as though taking in his features only roughly, unable to cope with more visual input than necessary at the moment. "You're Alex?"

While her tone was civil, she was not smiling, her face more blank than anything else, betraying her worry and her frustration at being powerless. Alex did not blame her. He remembered the last time some madman had landed Ben in the hospital – remembered how he had been punching walls and – figuratively – ripping off the doctors' and nurses' heads for a whole week. As calm and collected as both Alex and Ben generally seemed or were, anger was their shared cover-up for worry when it came to each other, and probably the only thing that ever led to serious arguments between them.

"Yes, Alex Rider. I've... worked with your husband," he replied, suddenly feeling out of place. It was obvious that K-unit was closely knit, and these ties seemed to extend to their families. It made Alex feel kind of like an intruder. Then he felt Ben's eyes on him, warm and reassuring, and the awkwardness dissipated almost at once. He extended a hand for Fiona to shake. "I wish we could have met under different circumstances, Mrs McCarthy."

"Fiona," she corrected him, her lips still unsmiling, but her eyes growing clearer. She took his hand in a surprisingly strong grasp and shook it.

When neither added anything to the introduction, Wolf approached, tentatively laying an arm around Fiona's shoulders to guide her.

"Let's go now, all right?" He nudged, his voice still awkwardly gentle, and a little uncertain, like he was asking himself as much as he was asking her, reluctant to leave his unit member after keeping watch for more than a day.

The two of them had just disappeared around the next corner when the door to Snake's room opened and a doctor stepped out. Alex recognized him as Roger Hayward, one of the _specialists_ who had treated both him and Ben on several occasions.

"Ah, Mr Rider and Mr Daniels," he said when he looked up from the notes on his clipboard and recognized them, "what a nice change of pace to see you both on the other side of the door for once."

"Dr Hayward," Ben returned the greeting politely, and continued with a certain impatience. "Is there anything you can tell us about Quinn McCarthy's condition?"

"I'm afraid most of the background details are classified," the doctor responded with an uncomfortable shrug, immediately assuming that they were not inquiring for business but for personal reasons. "You would have to be family or present a notice from the higher ups, - or ask him yourself," he added lowly with a wink that looked too forcedly youthful and light-hearted. "He is a trained medic, after all, so he should be able to explain the medical details to you, if you're interested. He can also tell you more about how he got injured in the first place, if he feels up to it. I do kindly ask you to refrain from interrogating him, though."

"We won't pressure him, don't worry," Ben assured him and Alex gave a confirmatory nod.

"Anything else you are allowed to tell us?" He questioned.

"Well, for now he seems to be stable, physically and mentally," Hayward explained, subtly glancing down to his clipboard. "We have stabilised his legs and wrapped up his left hand, though I'm afraid he is lacking one and a half fingers. Other than that it's mostly bruises," then he pointed at his clipboard with a helpless smile. "I'm afraid I'll have to excuse myself, I need to see to my next patient now. I hope we won't see each other all too soon."

They thanked the doctor and bid him goodbye before finally entering Snake's room.

The soldier was awake and watching a young boy of about three years sleeping on one of the plastic chairs over at the opposite wall. He appeared to be relaxed and not in any pain, probably thanks to the painkillers which Fiona had mentioned in her small outburst and which were being fed into his bloodstream via an IV in his left arm. There was a small, slightly wistful smile on his face as he observed his son, but it became wider as soon as he saw who had arrived.

"Quinn, mate, you look like shit!" Ben exclaimed with humour in his tone, and the forced quality of it might have gone unnoticed if it had not been used in the presence of Alex and Snake of all people.

"Gee, thanks, Fox," Snake retorted sarcastically, voice scratchy and rough from either disuse or misuse, and Alex hoped for the other's mental well-being that it was the former. A voice hoarse from screaming would most probably have meant torture.

Alex took in his friend's injuries, and discovered that his left pinky and a part of his ring finger were indeed gone, judging from the strange form of the heavy bandage hiding most of the entire hand from view. There were screws going in and out of both his legs, to stabilise comminuted fractures, and most of the skin Alex could see was black, blue bruised or a brownish orange with disinfectant.

"They did quite a number on my legs," Snake commented when he noticed Alex's stare. (He would have flushed at the unprofessional lack of subtlety on his part, but in the current situation there were more important things to care about than that.) "No clean breaks there, my thighs and shins are pretty much smashed... Luckily they seem to have forgotten my knees, for the most part at least. With any luck I'll be walking again in due course."

"They do have some real experts here," Alex nodded in response, relieved to see that the soldier was dealing well with his own condition, and suppressed the urge to touch the old scar on his chest – one of many, yes, but definitely the most spectacular of them, seeing what the chances for survival had been.

"Yes," Snake agreed with a slow nod, "I don't know about active duty yet, but I would have taken a while off anyway, to help Fiona with Jake and Hannah." An affectionate and proud grin broke out on his face at the mention of his unborn daughter, and his eyes returned to his son who was starting to wake up.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the young child looked around in confusion, probably due to the unfamiliar surroundings or his mother's absence from the room. When he recognized one of the men standing by his father's bedside, though, his face lit up with joy.

"Good morning, Jake," Ben greeted the boy with a warm smile, stepping over to the plastic chairs.

"Uncle Ben!" Jake jumped from where he had been perched on the chair and stumbled over towards him, hugging his legs. "Long time no see!" He shouted happily before, with childish suddenness, his smile froze and turned into a frown. "Daddy got hurt," he stated sadly.

"Yeah, that's why we're here," Ben nodded, picking up his friend's son. "But he'll be okay. The doctor told you that, too, right?"

"Yes," Jake agreed, but a wobbly pout remained on his face nonetheless.

"Hey, it's all right, Jake, really," Ben comforted him, shifting his grip to have the boy balanced on his hip, effectively freeing one hand which he cupped around the child's ear. "And tell you what? He'll get a wheelchair for a while and I bet he'll let you try it out, too. That's cool, isn't it?" The whisper coaxed a mischievous grin out of Jake who began chattering excitedly again about this and that.

Alex tuned out their conversation, deciding to put off introductions until later. An odd feeling had settled in the pit of his stomach at once more watching how easily Ben put smiles on children's faces. He had witnessed it every now and then – passing a playground while a child tripped and fell and scraped a knee open, calming a crying girl looking for her mother whom she had lost in a hostage situation... He turned towards Snake who was watching the interaction as well.

"By the way, aren't you hungry?" Ben inquired, and continued when Jake responded with a nod. "Want to grab something to eat, then? Your mum has already gone ahead with your uncle Luke."

"Yes!" The boy answered enthusiastically, waving his arms as a signal for the man holding him to put him down. "I want chips! And ice cream!"

Ben chuckled, set Jake down again and took one small hand into his own to lead him. With a long glance towards Snake and a mouthed "Later", he left the room, pulled along by the determined three-year-old.

"He'd make a great father," Snake stated as soon as the door had closed and the two pairs of steps – one an energetic patter, the other a well-measured stride – had faded enough for Ben and Jake to be out of earshot. Alex, who hand been pulling up one of the chairs to the bedside, paused in his actions for a brief moment before he proceeded to sit down. He regarded the soldier with a raised eyebrow.

"That's what you were thinking just now," the man explained and chuckled slightly. "I've never seen you look guilty like that, Cub."

Before Alex could do more than open his mouth to protest at the accusation, Snake stopped him with a "shut up, will you" spoken in a soft voice, making for a rather unusual combination.

"I'm neither in the mood, nor in the shape for an argument, Alex," he added, meeting his eyes calmly.

"...sorry, Quinn," the young spy mumbled, the feeling of awkwardness returning. The members of K-unit (apart from Ben, of course) rarely used his real name, and he hardly ever referred to them by theirs. It was a strange matter, just like the exact workings of their team dynamics, with and without him, were still very much obscure to him. Maybe, he sometimes contemplated, the code names were his way of excluding himself from their personal lives, his way of keeping his relations to them professional because they still had not earned his full trust and forgiveness. And this talk was turning into something more private than Alex was comfortable with. He got up, walking over to the window to watch the familiar grey skies outside.

"It's fine," Quinn brushed the apology off easily. "But don't beat yourself up about Fox. He's a people person. I bet he was the one who managed to get Fiona away from the door, too."

"He should have chosen a different job," Alex murmured with a shake of his head, irritated by no one in particular, Ben, Quinn and himself all at once. This was not a topic he appreciated being brought up at all, and this certainly was not the moment to talk about his concern (and weight on his conscience, in a way) that Ben might want children at some point or another. They were completely off track – they should be worrying about Quinn, about his health, his job, his family – yet they were discussing _this _instead.

"He did want to become a teacher at one point, you know," Quinn informed him in an annoyingly reasonable tone. "Would've made a damn good one, too, I bet. But he obviously decided against that. I'm sure he has his reasons, and anyway, his personality is one of the things that make him so good at what he does."

Alex did not respond immediately, rolling the idea around in his mind first, inspecting it from all sides and angles. He could not deny that there was truth in Quinn's statement, and honestly, he could not imagine Ben away from the danger and action - not even from the paperwork that came with MI6.

A pair of loud, fast footsteps approaching in the corridor and a few hissed words of reprimanding were all the warning they got before the door burst open, making Alex reach for a gun he was not even wearing. Eagle rushed in without looking left or right, stormed over to Snake shouting "Wolf called me!" and kissed the other man square on the lips while Alex stared at the scene more or less dumbfounded.

"You bloody idiot!" To his surprise, it was Eagle who yelled that line, agitation evident in his voice, reminding him of Ben on similar occasions. "Thank God you're alive!" Minus the flair for dramatics.

"_You_ are the idiot," Snake protested weakly at the insult, but an affectionate, crooked smile spread on his pale face. "And a drama queen, too." He made no attempt to evade the other man's touch at all, and Alex suddenly saw the easy camaraderie which he had witnessed being displayed between the two of them so often - and which had admittedly made him wonder often enough - in a new light.

It was only then that Alex noticed Sophia White leaning in the doorway with her arms crossed in front of her chest and a slightly stiff smirk on her lips. For a moment he was confused by her presence, but then he realised that Eagle and her had moved in together, and that she would not have let him drive in this condition– he was actually, literally trembling. Alex mused what exactly their relationship was – they had never specified whether they had become room mates as friends or as lovers. Regarding Sophia's expression at Eagle's rash action, the thought crossed his mind that maybe they had not even figured things out themselves yet.

"Don't you agree, _Cub_?" Snake asked unexpectedly, directing Eagle's attention away from himself, making him whirl around to stare at Alex with wide eyes like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

"Uh, Cub, hey," Eagle stuttered, blushing a red as dark as his hair. (Snake had a thing for redheads, Alex sniggered mentally.) "Didn't notice you were here."

"Yeah, I guessed so," he retorted, finding it rather funny that the man would feel more embarrassed by an unofficial unit member's presence than by his maybe-girlfriend's after the previous display of affection. Especially since Alex and Ben had not been keeping their own relationship secret in front of K-unit anymore.

Eagle was holding Snake's right hand in a vice-like grip of white-knuckled fingers, he noted. It must have hurt, yet Snake was not trying to free himself. In fact, he was squeezing back ever so gently. The situation should have been awkward – Quinn was a married man and Sophia was Neil's _something_ at least, and really, Alex was more of an outsider to this than anything, getting an involuntary insight into this relationship chaos that was astonishingly not turned into a drama by the people involved, despite its soap-opera potential.

"Don't mind Neil," Sophia suddenly spoke up in her unaccented voice, pushing herself off the door frame and straightening up. She looked odd, not wearing her usual formal grey, black or brown business attire, but dressed casually in light jeans, a dark top and a loose white blouse instead, her shoulder-length brown hair in a messy ponytail that reminded him of Jack just a little bit. "He _is_ an idiot."

"I agree," Alex said, ignoring Neil's spluttering in the background that stilled as soon as Quinn moved, catching his attention in the process. "Hello, Sophie."

"Alex," she nodded in response. "Ben's here, too, I presume?"

"Yes, he took Jake to get something to eat," he replied, unsure for a second whether she could put a face to that name or not. The boy was not foreign to her, it seemed.

"Ah," she inclined her head. "What about Fiona?"

"Cafeteria with Wolf... Luke. You know her?" Alex glanced over at Neil and Quinn at his question, noticing Sophia doing the same, her lips twisting into a new smirk.

"I do," she confirmed his assumption. "Don't ask me how, though, it's too messed up to explain."

And that had been that. No further explanations, no further anything. Neil had clung to Quinn for a little longer, the latter gradually easing the other off him – very slowly, very gently – until their hands were only brushing ever so slightly. Ben and Jake came back soon enough, filling the room with amiable chatter and subtle but serious inquisitions. When Fiona returned with Luke over an hour later, looking a bit more rested and calm than before, she claimed a seat on her husband's left side without even a glance at Neil.

ooo

It was nearing five in the afternoon and the rain had faded to a drizzle. Ben and Alex had taken Jake off Fiona and gone for a walk through the hospital garden while she solved issues and made plans with Neil and Sophia, who had offered her to stay with them until Quinn was released, and to help out at home after that. That had come as a surprise to Alex, seeing that he had gained the impression that, for two women in a similar situation, Fiona and Sophie did not get along too well. He did not really care to delve into the deeper workings and reasons, though – the day had brought enough revelations for him.

"I bet Neil did something totally stupid when he arrived," Ben said with a crooked grin. "Am I right?"

"Yep," Alex rejoined with an exaggerated grave expression. "Kissed Quinn square on the mouth. With Sophie watching, no less. Didn't even notice me."

Ben chuckled knowingly, and started explaining without any prompt. "Yeah, those two, Neil and Quinn, I mean, they're a bit special, I guess. Not that that wasn't obvious. They had a little something once, wouldn't call it a fling, but anyway. I don't quite know the details, just that they more or less broke up when Quinn met Fiona. And it seems Neil never really managed to let go."

"Quinn did not exactly stop him either, you know," Alex remarked sceptically, wondering if Neil truly was the only one unable to _let go_.

"It's complicated," Ben sighed, unwittingly repeating Sophia's earlier words. When Alex informed him of this, he gave an appreciative nod. "You should listen to her, she's a smart one."

"And she moved in with Neil?" Alex shook his head, bemused. "Does Fiona know, by the way? Sophie hinted at something like that, I think."

Ben looked thoughtful for a moment, looking straight ahead, carefully looking for the right words – there was no need to complicate things any further with some ill-chosen phrasing.

"She does, yeah. Neil was the best-man at their wedding, you know. She definitely found out about their past thing then, if not earlier. From what Neil told me she was the one to convince him to take back his initial refusal when Quinn asked him," he said. "And it's not that Quinn is unfaithful or insincere. He's just... a bit undecided at times. He does love Fiona a lot, and she knows that. And pushing Neil away every time he accidentally oversteps the boundaries of platonic friendship would put more strain on everyone that it's worth. And as long as it's just little things, like a hug that lasts a little too long, or a rushed peck on the lips without much thought, Fiona ignores it, as far as I know."

"She is a little crazy, isn't she," Alex snorted, shaking his head at the thought of the woman. Quinn had really caught himself one of a kind.

Ben did not answer, he simply laid his arm around Alex's shoulders and walked on, guiding him along.

Ben did not answer, and really, there was nothing else to be said about the matter, Alex mused. They were all a little crazy, after all.

Fiona, silently enduring her husband loving another, however faithful he may or may not be physically – sharing that certain place in his heart with Neil.

Quinn who obviously did love his wife and his children, born and unborn, but was still unable to let go of his feelings for his friend-and-once-upon-a-time-something-more.

Neil who seemingly had no understanding whatsoever of the lines between friendship and love and marriage, between close and too close, no clue of the bounds placed on relationships by different labels.

Sophia who was much more unconventional than she let on, who wore her blouses with the top button closed, yet did not seem to truly mind the thought of her boyfriend loving someone else.

Ben, the people person who would have made an awesome father but had chosen a job and a lover that would keep him from having a family and the white picket fence.

And finally Alex himself who resignedly shook his head at the tangle of wishes, desires and foolish ideas and shrugged it all off like one would a winter's coat upon entering a nicely heated house.

Alex leaned into Ben, sneaking an arm around his waist. With little Jake jumping into puddles in front of them without a care in the world, they probably look like God-knows-what, maybe even – and Alex is not sure what to think of that idea – maybe even a family.

_**A/N**__: I really hoped you enjoyed it – please let me know what you think any way, though. I'm a sucker for concrit as well as praise ;) I'm especially curious as to what you think of the dynamics between Snake and Eagle and the women in their lives – and if you would like to get some more sneak peaks into them._


End file.
